I am Jessica. This is my place on the internets. A repository for recipes, ideas, inspiration, opinions.

Tag Archives: the news

I got a call from my Mom this morning letting me know that we’re under flash flood and tornado watch in the area today.

Now you may be wondering why at almost-28 years old, my mommy is still calling to remind me not to stand out in the rain and drowned. It’s really not quite as pathetic as it sounds.

See, the thing is, I don’t watch the news. Don’t get me wrong, I try to stay at least moderately informed of current events. I know that Britney is the same Kentwood white trash she’s always been. I know that our presidential candidate choices so far are:

a once-heroic centenarian who sold his soul to his party in exchange for the privilege of having his ass handed to him in November ,

what, in my opinion, would amount to a pitiful excuse for the first female president,

an elitist Secret-Muslim (if my elitist you mean, putting law school and well-paying corporate gigs on hold to become a community organizer seeking to improve living conditions for the poor, and by Secret-Muslim, you mean Presbyterian).

I know that the Olympics are to be held in Beijing and quite a few people aren’t too thrilled about it.

I don’t, however, know the weather forecast or who is Student of the Week at any of the local schools. This usually has little to no impact on my day-to-day life. The one time it did have an effect, it was quite the doozy. Was a little thing called Hurricane Rita. Yeah, you know the hurricane no one gave a shit about right after TheBigOneAKAKatrina.

We did know that there was a hurricane in the Gulf, but it was predicted to hit to our west right up until it didn’t. Someone we knew from that area was actually evacuating to here when they started telling people to turn back . Plus, we are far enough north that even when a hurricane does hit land on our coast, we usually end up just getting a few thunderstorms, maybe a flash flood warning or two. Nothing unusual for the area.

With Rita, however, we sat and watch it awe as the massive trees in our neighborhood were whipped around like balsa and the roof on the building across from us was torn off and skidding down street. We scrambling that night trying to find something to eat that didn’t require cooking but also most likely hadn’t spoiled in the absence of electricity and the still-sweltering September heat . We coordinated the next day with our friends to exchange showers and air-conditioning, us still having water and them electricity.

We got off relatively easy though. No one we knew was injured, within 48 hours all of our utilities had been restored, other than some tree limbs and some perishables in the fridge, there wasn’t much clean up. There were people in our hometown who were without electricity (unless they brought in generators) for weeks. Many of those displaced by Katrina, still living in shelters, again found themselves without electricity and water.

So ever since I called her the day after Rita and was like “So….that was some weather we had, huh? If only there was some way of knowing about it ahead of time.” she makes sure to keep her almost-28 and married daughter up-to-date on the severe weather forecast.